Tapasia are a three-piece progressive rock band who formed in Strabane three years ago with just Darren Doherty (guitar/vocals) and Omar Ben Hassine (drums/samples) before moving to Belfast and meeting Ross Hunter (bass/backing vocals). They’re influenced by bands that range from Tool to Pink Floyd to Blink 182 and as Ross tells me, “It’s a big mix of bands and that’s what makes being in this band so much fun - you don’t know what is going to be brought to the table.”

While a lot of bands in Belfast are following the good old indie-brick-road, Tapasia have chosen to stand out and play the music they love rather than trying to follow the crowd and make fans that way: “We are quite different to what is going on in the Northern Irish scene at the moment and we like that because we are doing what we want to do and never make a conscious decision to be different. This is good as people are always looking for new types of music to get into and we could be it.” I can’t seem to think of another band in Belfast who sounds like Tapasia and it’s good to see that they, along with bands like A Plastic Rose and Fighting With Wire, are willing to just be themselves, but it can cause a few problems for them: “we don’t slot into indie gigs or metal gigs and it is hard to get the right mix of people to come to our shows but that isn’t going to stop us trying as there really is something for everyone in our set.” It’s always easy to tell when a band isn’t enjoying themselves on stage, and what better way to make things hard for yourself than to play music that is just for the crowd and not because you want to play it? “We play music for more than just wanting to make it big, it’s a spiritual thing so we honestly don’t think being different will hurt us too much.”

In March Tapasia go on tour in England with Alright the Captain: “We leave Belfast on March 3rd to play 5 gigs in the Midlands area, starting in Huddersfield and ending in Leeds. On the Irish leg of the tour we are being joined by another English band called ‘Monsters Build Mean Robots’. The Belfast date is Thursday 26th March at Radar in Queens Students Union.” It’s great to see a Northern Irish band working really hard and gigging across the water in England because so many bands from Belfast spend their whole lives gigging here before it’s too late and they’ve missed their chances to get out: “We are really excited about going somewhere new and playing our music to a whole new audience.. This is what being in a band is all about! We are doubly stoked because it’s the first time we will be playing our new songs live as we have taken quite a bit of time out of the scene. Keep an eye on our MySpace to see how we are getting on!”

So while Tapasia have many big plans for this year, including recording a new EP and a possible trip to mainland Europe, you should probably start off getting to know this band by checking out one of their tour dates, whether it be in Ireland or England – I’m 100% certain you won’t be disappointed.